Saturday, May 3, 2014

Springtime


After a dreary winter, it's so nice to be enjoying a beautiful spring.  The last few days have been glorious in the Pacific Northwest, and the sunshine works wonders on my morale!

My last couple of projects reflect the season....here's a Springtime ATC created for Kimberly's
"Tea in the Garden" swap.  I'm enjoying working a little more in Photoshop, combining a vintage sepia image of a little girl with an old colorful illustration of a teacup, then placing that image on top of a gorgeous old seed catalog cover, adding some shadows here and there for depth.  These are all fairly easy steps in Photoshop, but I am still such a newbie and always feel like celebrating when something actually "works" and I haven't broken my computer in the process! The teaspoon is a separate cut-out, which I've raised up a bit for dimension. Little pearls and rhinestones, plus tiny flower clusters and itsy-bitsy hair bows complete the three I sent off for the swap.


I also did a spring-themed project with BlissfulARTswaps in April:  "Spring Nest".  Here's what I traded with my partner:


Now each month, the newly-formatted task is to create an ATC (or a tag), plus a card, along with a small assortment of de-stash crafty items (not pictured) for your designated partner. I decided to decorate the envelope with washi tape to make it coordinate with the card...  I love how it turned out, and think I'll do that again (I'm always a little stumped how to best use washi tape... are you?)

The ATC has a 3-d wire nest. It was an extra one I had, left over because it was too big to fit into my soldered shadowbox pendants (see sidebar photos).  I went out in the yard for a couple of tiny twigs for it to nestle into.


My partner, Alice, sent me a wonderful pile of springtime goodness!  I don't believe she has a blog, so I can't link up to her site.


Her ATC and cards (she sent two!) are very sweet...


and she sent along a bunch of fun stuff I'll love to play with on future projects:


HAPPY SPRING!!

ooops, I spoke too soon....it's going to rain today, and looks like we have more dreary days ahead :-(  Come back, sunshine!

6 comments:

  1. Everything is just beautiful and colorful and perfect for Spring! Yes, rain go away, oh please. I have new shrubs and flowers needing planted and just can't get motivated to do it in this gray drizlly weather.

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  2. Ohhhh...so much loveliness! I I adore your first little girl, too -- she almost looks like a little you!

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  3. Maggie, I was the fortunate recipient of one of your beautiful "Tea in the Garden" ATCs. I had spied yours on your blog prior to receipt of my package from Kimberly and crossed my fingers that I might get one of yours. Your Photoshop skills certainly don't look like a "newbie" to me! I love the images you combined. Your ATC has it all... perfect theme match, fanciful imagery, vibrant but balanced color, great layout and dimension! Love it. Thank you. I used to be in advertising/graphics but now office manage a demolition firm. Kim's little swaps let me play with layout, give me deadlines to get creating, and are manageable between home and work! - Happy Spring! - Amy Bauer

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  4. Maggie - sorry about the rain! These are all delightful, but that little tea swilling cute is PRICELESS. Your work is ALWAYS perfection! Hope the week ahead is full of sunshine - XOXOXOXO

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